ROMA MINORITY – CHALLENGES FOR VET
BACKGROUND
As the largest ethnic minority group in the EU, their treatment has become one of the most pressing issues on our political agenda.
Roma communities continue to face outright discrimination in accessing education, employment,
healthcare and other services. Education is the key to successful integration for all people, representing the most effective way of breaking the cycle of intergenerational deprivation suffered by many citizens. In the case of the Roma, improvements in access to and the quality of education constitute a significant opportunity to overcome the current situation of exclusion. In the context of increasing competition in the global economy and the deepening of the knowledge component of all professions, education is the sine qua non for access to decent work and thus to social inclusion.
The problems that Roma face in education, and the issue of Roma integration into mainstream education systems in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, has been a pressing matter for many years now. However, taking concrete action to integrate Roma has proven difficult for many countries.
CHALLENGES IN EDUCATION
International Comparative Data Set on Roma Education — 2008
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/esp/articles_publications/publications/monitoring_20061218/table_2008.pdf
ACTORS
EU initiatives
First, for over a decade, the EU has backed actions to support the Roma. It has provided financial support for Roma inclusion through the preaccession PHARE programme and, more recently, through the EU Structural Funds.
In the current financial period (2007 to 2013) the European Union will spend some €347 bn across the 27 Member States, concentrating on people who have difficulty in accessing the labour market and on regions lagging behind.
The programming process for the Funds starts with the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), in which the Member States set out the major issues they propose to tackle using the Funds, and includes analyses demonstrating the importance of these challenges and the effectiveness of responses proposed.
In the NSRFs of all Member States with substantial Roma populations, the issue of how best to respond to the challenges associated with the Roma is raised, and solutions proposed.
The general Regulation specifies that the objectives of the Funds have to be pursued in close cooperation (partnership) with the competent regional, local, urban and other public authorities, with the economic and social partners as well as with any appropriate body representing civil society, environmental partners, non-governmental organisations, and bodies responsible for promoting equality between men and women.
A number of EU programmes provide support for projects addressing discrimination against Roma and promoting their inclusion:
1. Anti-discrimination
2.Employment and social inclusion
The European Social Fund (ESF) – supports a number of projects in both the new and ‘old’ Member States to improve the access of Roma (among other disadvantaged groups) to employment, especially through better education and training. The Fund finances activities aimed at improving involvement in the labour market, including themes on women’s participation, lifelong learning, social inclusion, labour adaptability and an active labour market. It has already been used to finance several activities of relevance to Roma, Gypsies and Travellers.
EQUAL initiative seeks to test new approaches to fighting discrimination and inequalities in the employment market, to disseminate good practice and to ensure subsequent mainstreaming. A large number of projects promoting the inclusion of minority ethnic communities in the workplace have been financed through “development partnerships”, including many aimed specifically at Roma communities.
Community Action Programme to combat social exclusion. The programme aims to support cooperation between Member States on tackling exclusion.
3. Regional policy
European Regional Development Fund - is the EU’s principal instrument for regional policy and is of direct relevance to Roma populations.
European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund is also of interest to Roma populations. It provides support for disadvantaged communities in rural areas.
4. Education, training, youth and research
COMENIUS. One of the thematic fields focused on by COMENIUS is improving educational opportunities for children of migrant workers, occupational travellers, gypsies and travellers.
GRUNDTVIG. Fo cusing on “adult education and other educational pathways”, the Grundtvig action supports many projects designed to address the educational needs of ‘hard-to-reach’ social groups including Roma and Travellers - in order to improve their employability and enhance their capacity to enter or re-enter formal education..
The YOUTH programme is the EU’s mobility and non-formal education programme targeting young people aged between 15 and 25 years. One of the programme’s priorities for action is promoting diversity, and in particular reducing all forms of racism and xenophobia including discrimination against Roma.
LEONARDO DA VINCI is the Community Action Programme for vocational training, complementing lifelong training policies in the Member States.
Under its Research Framework Programmes, the EU funds research in the field of social sciences and humanities.Projects examining the situation of Roma and other minorities have been funded under this heading in the past, for example research into integrating Roma in the labour market.
5. Enlargement and external relations
Apart from the programmes mentioned above the EU works together with the Council of Europe on a joint programme to promote the status of Roma in South East Europe. Roma under the Stability Pact II aims to help address crisis situations, support policy development on Roma affairs, and promote Roma participation in civil society.
Impact of Structural Funds on Policy Priorities for Roma Inclusion
Many of the possible interventions in favour of Roma are typical European Social Fund (ESF) interventions. The following sections highlight a number of examples to show how the Structural Funds can be used in order to improve the living and working conditions of Roma women and men as well as children.
Education
The Roma constitute a young population with a high share of persons under the age of 20. Persistent disadvantages in education, including low school attendance and overrepresentation in “special schools“ intended for children with physical and mental disabilities, make it highly probable that without strong policy interventions supported by extensive programmes of capacity building and investment the next generation of Roma will remain in deep poverty and will be increasingly marginalised and excluded.
The ERDF and the ESF could support improvement in (pre-) school infrastructure, training for teachers or teaching assistants as well as measures focusing on the wider educational environment (counselling, information and support for students and their families).
Hungary
The Learning House (“Tanoda”) Programme, supported by the European Social Fund, addresses the need to encourage disadvantaged youth, in particular Roma, to complete elementary school and to increase their chances of attending secondary school and obtaining a school-leaving certificate. The “Learning Houses” offer after school care and tutoring, and pay dedicated attention to the family circumstances of the students.
The full integration of Roma students in all schools requires a long-term strategy of course.
For practical improvements in the short term, the following actions can be undertaken with
the support of the ESF:
• financing studies to assess the current educational situation and to propose appropriate
measures;
• support and stimulation for introducing preparatory classes for Roma children who do not
speak the national language;
• mentoring, including mentoring for families;
• after-hours support (e.g. homework groups);
• stimulation of employment of teachers with adequate qualification and specialisation;
• awareness-raising actions concerning cultural sensitivity and diversity;
• introduction of assistant teachers from the Roma communities, who will help in the process
of teaching Roma children (within mainstream education).
Employment
The high unemployment rate among Roma is one of the most serious factors contributing to the group’s social isolation. The EU regards the inclusion of people in the labour market as a major way of combating social exclusion, and the Employment Guidelines of the European Employment Strategy aim to facilitate access to employment. They pay special attention to groups which are disadvantaged on grounds of their ethnicity, including the Roma population.
Urgent actions are necessary to provide training and employment programmes that meet the needs of the labour market. In some programmes the ESF is funding targeted, but nonsegregated
projects to raise the employability of Roma women and men by offering them tailor-made vocational training, culturally sensitive job centres or accompanying measures after getting a job.
Spain
In Spain the ESF was mobilised in the programming period 2000–2006 to support the ACCEDER Programme which aimed at promoting access to quality employment for Roma. It has been carried out by the Fundación Secretariado Gitano. ACCEDER was implemented through 45 integrated employment centres set up throughout Spain. The main objective -Roma access to the labour market- is tackled mainly through labour insertion actions such as individual employment itineraries and the development and improvement of human resources. To this end an integrated, multidimensional and individualised approach was chosen. The programme was built around tailor-made vocational training, the setting up of a direct link between Roma job seekers and employment service providers, awareness-raising in respect of prejudices and discriminatory practices and the development of new jobs within the educational, healthcare and cultural social services. http://www.gitanos.org/acceder
Emphasis on self-employment or setting up cooperatives or firms often reflects the preferences of some Roma as well as the difficulties which they encounter in the labour market. To this end micro-credits may be particularly useful. The Regulation on the European Social Fund (Article 11) explicitly mentions the eligibility of micro-credits as a form of assistance. The present budget period also provides an interesting opportunity for fund-raising focusing on micro-businesses and SME creation. This new initiative, called JEREMIE, is part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The Commission adopted on 13 November 2007 an initiative for the development of microcredit in Europe, which focuses particularly on disadvantaged persons (unemployed or inactive people, those receiving social assistance, immigrants, ethnic minorities as is the case in central Europe, etc.) who wish to enter self-employment but do not have access to
traditional banking services. The Commission is setting up with the European Investment Bank-Group adequate instruments to provide mentoring support, technical assistance and funding to selected non-bank Micro-Finance Institutions (MFI) that, in turn, will disburse loans, equity or guarantees to disadvantaged persons with a view to helping them start businesses.
Transnational Cooperation
Based on the valuable lessons learnt from EQUAL, transnational cooperation has become an
integral part of the new ESF. This new promotional option encourages Member States to share information, experiences, results and good practices, and to promote joint development of approaches, tools and joint actions such as twinning between institutions and organisations. Transnational cooperation 2007–2013: European Network on Roma Community and Social Inclusion. The overarching objective of this European Network is to promote the use of Structural Funds to enhance the effectiveness of policies targeting the Roma community and promote social inclusion by developing a common work approach and creating a forum for debate. The sharing of strategies, initiatives and approaches, learning based on experience and best practices and the dissemination and standardisation of that knowledge are also major aims.
The EU also provides a forum for better policy coordination. A Roma inter-service working group has been established within the European Commission and provides a structure to make EU policies more effective by exchanging information and experiences and by developing common approaches to issues like education, housing and the allocation of Community funding. Bringing together 14 different departments and chaired by the Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG, it coordinates the different policies and programmes tackling Roma issues. Given the broad nature of the challenges, EU support is also provided across a broad range of policy areas and activities.
LINK TO MIGRANTS -Ethnic Minorities and Roma within the European Employment Strategy and the Lisbon Strategy
Immigrants and ethnic minorities, including Roma, are an important labour supply reserve in many Member States. Notwithstanding the lack of reliable statistics, it is clear that Roma are underrepresented in employment and in life long learning and over represented in unemployment and low quality jobs. Ethnic minorities, including Roma, are covered by areas which refer to “low-skilled”, “unemployed” or other disadvantaged groups.
Therefore the Employment Guidelines concerning these issues could be important for a large proportion of such groups. The introduction to the Guidelines states that “Equal opportunities and combating discrimination are essential for progress” directly after the overarching targets of full employment, improving quality and productivity at work and strengthening social and territorial cohesion.
The European Employment Strategy has a number of tools (mentioned above) which could be
used to put a stronger focus on Roma under the existing Strategy. The development and implementation of policies to better integrate Roma lie in the hands of the Member States and the existing tools, including ESF, are already there to support action in this direction. The Commission encourages and monitors the actions through these instruments and through mutual learning.
Education and Training Programmes
The Education and Training 2010 Work Programme, based on the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), focuses i.a. on issues of access to education for socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Since May 2006, a peer learning cluster of Member States representatives has been working on issues of access and social inclusion in education. The issue of segregation in education is being examined in that context.
Policy cooperation is also accompanied by support for transnational cooperation of organisations and stakeholders working in the education and training field. The Lifelong Learning Programme (mainly through “Comenius“, “Grundtvig” and “Leonardo da Vinci“) and the Youth Programme have already supported a large number of transnational projects in the field of intercultural education, Roma education and inclusion of disadvantaged youth.
Transnational co-operation, through the programmes in the field of education and training, has contributed to raising awareness and to developing tools to address educational issues for the Roma. More recently, the mainstreaming of the specific priority on Roma and migrants into more general priorities, while allowing for a better integration of Roma issues, has reduced the specific visibility of these efforts.
This strategic use of the Funds could make a major contribution to improving the Roma education situation. Its effectiveness will depend on the quality of investment and on the type of measures to which Member States will give priority. The example of Hungary, where indicators of equity in education have been developed as criteria for allocation of funds to educational projects, is promising.
The “Lifelong Learning” Programme for 2007-2013 will continue to support intercultural education and the fight against racism and xenophobia as transversal priorities. As noted above, there are now new opportunities for supporting projects aimed at the teaching and learning of Romani. New tools allowing better identification, monitoring and therefore visibility of projects addressing the Roma issue also will be developed.
In agreement with the Member States, transnational cooperation at policy level on social inclusion in education could be developed within the peer-learning cluster, including through the development of indicators and benchmarks. Cooperation with the Fundamental Rights Agency will be important to support more inclusive education for Roma students.
In order to extract the maximum value from the activities promoted by the programmes managed by DG Education and Culture, new efforts will be devoted to identifying and raising the visibility of individual initiatives. A new dissemination and exploitation platform (EVE) is currently under construction, which will facilitate the identification of projects and results touching the Roma issue (among others).
OTHER ACTORS
To improve the integration of the Roma people in the EU work, the group has finalised arrangements with the Open Society Institute, the European Roma Information Office and the European Roma Rights Centre.
Initiatives such as the Open Society Institute (OSI) project “Making the most of EU funding
for Roma”, focusing on creating projects as well as capacity building of Roma civil society and local authorities in the Member States, can usefully complement Community initiatives and render them more effective.
On the international level, there has already been a number of positive initiatives from the World Bank and the Council of Europe such as the “Decade for Roma Inclusion”, in which education was identified as a priority.
The Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015 is an unprecedented international effort to combat discrimination and to close the gap in welfare and living conditions between the Roma and the non-Roma, in order to break the cycle of poverty and exclusion. The founding international partner organizations of the Decade are the World Bank, the Open Society Institute, the United Nations Development Program, the Council of Europe, Council of Europe Development Bank, the Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the European Roma Information Office, the European Roma and Traveller Forum, the European Roma Rights Centre, and the Roma Education Fund. In February 2008, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also became a partner in the Decade.
The initiative endorsed by nine Central, Eastern, and South Eastern European countries. The declared objective is to accelerate progress in improving the social inclusion and economic status of Roma. It represents the first cooperative effort to change the lives of Roma in Europe. An action framework for governments, the Decade will monitor progress in accelerating social inclusion and improving the economic and social status of Roma across the region. The Decade of Roma Inclusion is a major international effort to meet the common European challenge of Roma inclusion in a coordinated, open and transparent way.http://www.romadecade.org/
CONCRETE VET PROJECTS
Romani and Sinti Participation for Effective Policy in Employment and Education
http://erionet.org/site/basic100012.html
The European Roma Information Office (ERIO) is participating in this project together with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC). The project intends to achieve long-term development and implementation of policies that will tackle systemic discrimination against Roma and Sinti in education and employment in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovakia. The project will further contribute to the capacitance of Roma and Sinti grassroots activists (while maintaining a gender balance) and to that of organisations to participate in policy-making that affect Roma, especially in the fields of education and employment. Research will be conducted within the framework of the project activities and trainings, conferences and round-tables will be held.
Promoting Vocational Skills and Life-long Learning among Parents of School-aged Children
The project in this study concerned the Romani settlement of Palac a in Beli Manastir, Baranja region, Croatia.
Goal: To increase employment opportunities among unemployed, disadvantaged Roma by providing new skills in an adult educational program.
In 2004, the Open Society Institute – Croatia launched the pilot project named the Comprehensive Roma Education Program. In working with the children from the Romani settlement, the difficulties confronted when they returned to their community from school led to the idea of identifying ways to engage the parents of school children in an adult education program. The sub-project Education to Vocation, Vocation to Employment started in September 2005 and was completed in October 2006. It was coordinated by the Roma Society in Beli Manastir and the Open Society Institute – Croatia in Zagreb.
The educational program took into consideration jobs and trades that were traditionally carried out by Roma, while introducing the idea of tourism as a new resource, in view of making and distributing tourist products and Baranja-Roma specific souvenirs.
For the participants, obtaining a formal credential was the first step towards obtaining a job.
Initial survey of resources and identification of trades. Great importance was placed on Romani traditions, which was a positive element for the Romani community. The value of the courses offered was threefold: traditional crafts were revived, the participants could learn and/or perfect their skills in these trades that had begun to fade over the years, and the participants would be ready to work independently or as part of the tourism industry.
USEFUL CONTACTS
International level:
World Bank
http://go.worldbank.org/ZREDP0IQU0
The World Bank addresses Roma issues in the context of its work on poverty and economic development in the region. The comparative advantages of the Bank in Roma issues are: (i) raising politically sensitive issues as an objective information broker, bringing diverse interests and stakeholders together; (ii) supporting integrative and constructive analytical work which brings together economic and social issues which affect Roma and other vulnerable groups; (iii) sharing innovative approaches across countries and regions, and scaling up viable approaches, programs and projects; (iv) mainstreaming ethnicity into policy to make public services more inclusive; and (v) leveraging and informing the involvement of other donors.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/ECAEXT/EXTROMA/0,,menuPK:615993~pagePK:64168427~piPK:64168435~d:y~theSitePK:615987,00.html
useful links:
Virtual learning environment http://vle.worldbank.org/gdln/roma.htm
project portal: http://go.worldbank.org/7K16Z4BBZ0
Open Society Institute
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/roma
The Open Society Institute works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve its mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI builds alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. OSI places a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of marginalized people and communities.
Investor and philanthropist George Soros created OSI as a private operating and grantmaking foundation to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. OSI has expanded the activities of the Soros foundations network to encompass the United States and more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. www.soros.org www.soros.org/initiatives/esp
Education Support Program
OSI’s Education Support Program (ESP) and its network partners support education reform in countries in transition, combining best practice and policy to strengthen open society values. ESP works to facilitate change in education and national policy development. ESP is the organizational hub for a dynamic and growing network of OSI/Soros foundations, education spin-off organizations, cross-national NGOs, regional education cooperation networks, OSI-related professional networks, and independent professionals.
ESP-supported education monitoring projects to date include: the Report on Gender Issues in Education covering CIS countries, undertaken with the OSI Network Women’s Program; Monitoring School Dropouts and Education in a Hidden Marketplace: Monitoring of Private Tutoring; and Monitoring Education for Roma and the International Comparative Data Set in Roma Education. ESP is currently engaged with OSI EUMAP program in a monitoring project on the access of Roma children to quality education.
ESP’s aim is to identify an efficient and effective way to monitor key education concerns, such as the need to provide vulnerable groups with equal access to quality education, including open society values.
Networks & Partners
Network of Education Policy Centers
The Education Support Program (ESP) supports the efforts of emerging Education Policy Centers in transition countries for a better sharing of information, knowledge and experience as well as exploring and promoting possibilities for joint initiatives and networking.
Central Asian Education Cooperation Network
The regional Central Asian Education Cooperation Network seeks to enhance the education reform processes through improved cooperation among countries in the region.
SEE ECN: South East European Educational Cooperation Network
The SEE ECN: South East European Educational Cooperation Network facilitates the flow of information and establishes links among grassroots initiatives, NGOs, regional education policy makers, and international institutions.
Roma Initiative
http://romaeducationfund.hu/
The goal of the Roma Education Fund is to contribute to closing the gap in educational outcomes between Roma and non-Roma, through policies and programs to support quality education for Roma including desegregation of educational systems. The Roma Education Fund was created in the framework of the Decade of Roma Inclusion. Therefore it also shares the goals of the Decade. It finances projects that meet its goals and are proposed and implemented by Governments, NGOs and private organizations and supports greater research, studies and evaluations that contribute to effective policies and programs for inclusion of Roma in national education systems a well as supports exchange of ideas, views and experiences accross the Decade countries but also with any country that has relevant experience in promoting the goals of the REF.
Council of Europe – Roma and Travellers Division
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) – Roma and Sinti
European level:
European Roma and Travellers Forum
European Network Against Racism
European Roma Information Office
European Roma Rights Centre
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/fundamental_rights/roma/rlink_en.htm
LINKS TO USEFUL DOCUMENTS
EU:
Official EU webpage: EU and Roma
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/fundamental_rights/roma/index_en.htm
EU Documents and publications
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/fundamental_rights/roma/rpub_en.htm
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT accompanying the COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Non-discrimination and equal opportunities: A renewed commitment Community Instruments and Policies for Roma Inclusion {COM(2008) 420}
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=553&langId=en
OTHER:
Open Society Institute publications:
the best available data on Roma education in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe. Collating information from 19 countries, Monitoring Education for Roma: A Statistical Baseline for Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe provides the clearest, most accurate image yet of Roma participation across a broad range of key education indicators, including enrollment and completion in primary, secondary, and tertiary education.
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/esp/articles_publications/publications/monitoring_20061218/monitoring_20061218.pdf
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/esp/articles_publications/publications/monitoring_20061218/table_2008.pdf
The Education Support Program (ESP) presents Experiences of the Roma Education Initiative, a compilation of documentation studies based on the experiences of the Roma Education Initiative (REI). REI was an ambitious project funded and implemented by the Open Society Institute in partnership with Soros foundations and Roma and non-Roma NGOs, spanning 2002 to 2005.
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/esp/articles_publications/publications/experiences_20071201/experiences_20071201.pdf
Strategic approaches and mechanisms for supporting Roma integration in Bulgarian society through vocational education and training
http://demo.itent.hu/roma/portal/downloads/Decade%20Documents/Opportunities%20for%20Roma%20Integration_EN.ppt
THE SITUATION OF ROMA IN AN ENLARGED EUROPEAN UNION
http://www.erionet.org/site/upload/pubblications/reports/roma_in_enlarged%20european%20union_en.pdf
Roma cultural mediators - Ireland study
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/equal/practical-examples/asyl-06-ie-roma_en.cfm
Establishment of vocational qualification “Roma Mentor” and education of first generation;. Establishment of Roma training and information Center Slovenia
http://www.equal.fi/download/?f=83882&m=18687&a=76586&c=3278&x=0
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:lCNQYx96yH4J:www.equal.fi/download/%3Ff%3D83882%26m%3D18687%26a%3D76586%26c%3D3278%26x%3D0+vocational+education+training+%22roma%22&hl=sk&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=sk
Conclusions of the conference on ”the Roma and the labour market”
http://www.employment.gov.sk/new/index.php?id=12393
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:-wqLG6LqXv4J:www.employment.gov.sk/new/index.php%3Fid%3D12393+vocational+education+training+%22roma%22&hl=sk&ct=clnk&cd=15&gl=sk
Vocational training program of the Roma Resource Center
http://ehons.org/enjoom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=53&Itemid=1
Training a Romany Adult Group for Vocational Education in Finland
http://www.rom-equal.net/pdf/training_romany_adults.pdf
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
An opportunity for EVTA?
Providing better education and training for Roma people has a key role in improving their employability and their income generation potential, and promoting their social empowerment. The European Training Foundation (ETF) has undertaken two activities focusing on Roma people within its project 'Vocational training against social exclusion'.
All the knowledge and experience the oganisation has in the field of VET and migrants issues can be easily use to tackle the Roma challenge in VET within the EU. There are many source of funding available from the European Institutions and other transnational organizations and foundations.
Arguments:
- Roma population is one of the target groups for VET. In many EU countries get Roma people the necessary qualifications through VET.
- Roma problematic is highly recognized on the EU level.
- All the EU countries located in Eastern Europe deal with the Roma challenge. Therefore possible new partners and cooperation can be found through this issue.
- There are many source of funding available.
- New contacts can be made with the institutions such as World Bank and Open Society Institute.
- All the knowledge and experience gained while dealing with Roma issue can be also used to tackle the migrants problematic and the other way round.
Opportunities and possibilities on the EU level:
– Fully use of the enormous potential offered by the Structural Funds and preaccession instruments and to create synergies with other processes such as the Roma Decade. This has to be accompanied by a number of specific measures, such as capacity building, monitoring and participation.
- Consistent combating of negative stereotypes of Roma at all levels which can be supported by both Structural Funds and specific programmes such as PROGRESS and initiatives such as the ongoing 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and the forthcoming 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.
POSSIBLE ACTIONS OF THE NETWORK AND MEMBERS
16/09/2008: European Roma Summit in Brussels – the first event of its type, this high-level conference will examine the issues surrounding integration of Europe's Roma minority as a follow-up to the Commission's report on the Roma in the Renewed Social Agenda.
Proposal for consultations: Migrant children and education: challenges and opportunities for EU education systems
With its Green Paper "Migration & Mobility: challenges and opportunities for EU education systems", adopted on 3 July 2008, the Commission wants to open the debate on how education policies may better address the challenges posed by immigration and internal EU mobility flows.
It raises issues such as how to prevent the creation of segregated school settings, so as to improve equity in education; how to accommodate the increased diversity of mother tongues and cultural perspectives and build intercultural skills in the EU; and how to adapt teaching skills and build bridges with migrant families and communities. The Green Paper forms part of the Renewed Social Agenda, the Commission's package of measures, adopted on 2 July 2008, to reinforce Access, Opportunities and Solidarity among all EU citizens. With this Green Paper, the Commission launches a public consultation on the issues at stake. Interested parties are invited to make their views known about the policy challenge, policy responses, and the possible role of the European Union in supporting Member States, before 31 December 2008. The European Commission will analyse the results of this consultation and publish its conclusions in early 2009.
http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/news490_en.htm
Open Call for Tenders VT/2008/006
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/emplweb/tenders/tenders_en.cfm?id=3605
Activities to improve the impact of policies, programmes and projects aimed at the social inclusion and non-discrimination of Roma people in the EU.